This invention relates to an enhanced pure organic fertilizer, and to a process for converting composted organic material produced by optimized composting procedures into enhanced organic fertilizer for agronomic and other uses.
The successful production of plants, including crops, flowers, young tree saplings and the like, involves optimizing the soil fertility in order to produce growth and maturity. It is also desirable to maintain soil fertility and structure over long periods of time. Animal manures have been used as nutrient sources since ancient times; the use of animal manures also provides good soil tilth and structure. The disadvantage, however, is animal manures have relatively low nutrient value, include non-stabilized forms of plant nutrients prone to leaching and, if the manure is applied raw, the soil will have to provide nutrients for the micro-organisms involved in the manure breakdown process. This can lead to a nutrient deficiency in the soil for a crop planted in it.
Soil fertility involves a complex series of interactions of the numerous components in the soil, including physical, chemical, and hydrological processes and phenomena. Attaining agronomic benefit from the application of compost based fertilizers to croplands requires a compost product that interacts beneficially with all of the physical, chemical and biological processes and phenomena going on in the soil. The factors influencing soil fertility include soil pH, the form of the available resident nutrients, temperature, moisture content, soil atmosphere and the microbial populations that are present. The incorporation of compost into soil can influence all of these factors. The indiscriminate addition of low quality compost to croplands can be counter productive, and can result in soil fertility problems.
The majority of fertilizers applied to croplands in North America for crop production are chemical or mineral fertilizers, or a combination of these. Mineral fertilizers tend to be simple mineral salts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, such as ammonium nitrate, and potassium phosphate. Synthetic chemical fertilizers cannot normally be used in certified organic food production.
Composting is a common process used to recycle organic wastes. The composting process reduces the volume of organic material and stabilizes potential nutrients in the compost, particularly nitrogen. Composting curtails environmental pollution and reduces, often significantly, the amount of recyclable organic matter requiring another method of disposal, which often is to dump it into a landfill site. During the composting process, the carbon and nitrogen containing compounds in the organic materials are transformed by successive microbial populations into more stable complex forms which chemically and biologically resemble humic substances.
The commercial viability of existing composting facilities is primarily based on the operator receiving a fee for accepting the organic material from waste generators. The emphasis in most of these waste management composting facilities is the composting of large volumes of material to reduce the amount of material. The retention time in the composting channels or windrows is minimized to allow the maximum flow through. Sometimes the compost is allowed to cure outside the composting system to complete the bio-stabilization process. Little effort is made to maximize the quality of the compost.
The development of compost fertilizer to minimize the volume of waste organic material going to landfill sites has resulted in substantial quantities of compost becoming available for cropland application. Not all of this compost material is suitable for certified organic farming. This invention seeks to provide a multi-step process in which the quality of organic compost applied to farmland is maximized, so that the organic compost provides as much benefit as can reasonably be achieved to the farmland.
Dick and McCoy, in xe2x80x9cEnhancing Soil Fertility by Addition of Compostxe2x80x9d, 1993 Science and Engineering of Composting, Design, Environmental, Microbial and Utilization Aspects, Renaissance Publications, Ohio, USA, summarize the advantages and disadvantages of compost and mineral fertilizers.
The scientific literature records numerous positive crop yields from the application of compost as a fertilizer to farmland. Where yield decreases have been reported they can generally be attributed to the application of immature compost where the bio-stabilization process is incomplete. The addition of immature compost to soil can result in soil nitrogen being utilized to complete the bio-stabilization process.
In recent years there has been a continuous growth in developed countries in the production of food crops by certified organic crop production processes. The governments of both Canada and the United States are developing standards for labelling food products as xe2x80x9corganically producedxe2x80x9d, and several certifying agencies exist to certify farms and market gardens as xe2x80x9corganicxe2x80x9d. The concept underpinning xe2x80x9corganicxe2x80x9d food crop production is the elimination of the synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, drugs, growth hormones and other non-natural production means commonly used. The following agencies provide certification that the required standards are met:
OCIxe2x80x94Organic Crop Improvement Association 1001 Y Street, Suite B Lincoln, Nebr. 68508-1172 U.S.A.; and
QAIxe2x80x94Quality Assurance International 12526 High Bluff Dr., Suite 300 San Diego, Calif. 92130 U.S.A.
This invention seeks to overcome the problems that exist with the use of poor quality compost as a fertilizer on soils, such as farmland used for a crop. In particular, this invention seeks to provide pure organic fertilizer pellets that can be used to provide food products, particularly fruit and vegetable products, that comply with the requirements for xe2x80x9corganic productsxe2x80x9d, and thus can be so certified.
Thus, in its broadest embodiment, this invention seeks to provide a process for preparing pure organic fertilizer pellets from a compostable waste material or materials complying with organic standards comprising:
(i) converting the waste material into a fine particulate mass of fully bio-stabilized compost with known levels of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and water under conditions which minimize losses of nutrients due to volatilization and leaching;
(ii) passing the fully bio-stabilized and nutrient rich compost through a relatively coarse screen to provide two fractions, comprising small particle material less than 1 cm and particles greater than 1 cm, and separating the particles greater than 1 cm for further processing;
(iii) passing the small particle material from step (ii) through a second screen, to provide a fine particle material having a diameter of 1 mm or less, in which a major proportion of the fine particles are less than 150 microns in size;
(iv) mixing the fine particle material from step (iii) under controlled conditions with an agronomically acceptable source of nutrients to enhance the compost fertilizer to a desired agronomic level to provide a blended mixture having a known nitrogen:phosphorus:potassium ratio; and
(v) subjecting the blended mixture from step (iv) to a pelleting process at a pressure of from about 2,000 psi to about 6,000 psi to provide a pelleted pure organic fertilizer product meeting applicable organic standards.
In the process of this invention, the first step is to convert the incoming waste material into compost. The organic waste material that is composted is restricted to materials that are derived from natural sources, and complies with xe2x80x9corganicxe2x80x9d standards. A typical feed material would be plant wastes from the harvesting of organically grown crops. Similarly, livestock wastes from organically raised livestock can be composted separately or in combination with other clean organic wastes. In this step, the bio-stabilization composting process is optimized as far as it is possible, and it is completed under controlled conditions, so as to produce fully bio-stabilized composts with known levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. The amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in the compost can be influenced by the selection and control of the raw organic matter to be composted. For example, the waste material is chosen so as to provide a final product having an optimized nitrogen:phosphorus:potassium ratio. The nitrogen:phosphorous:potassium ratio can range between 1 and 15% by volume in the final pellet depending upon the source of the raw organic material.
Complete bio-stabilization in itself is not a new process. In the process of this invention, the bio-stabilization process is fully completed during the composting process. The retention time in the composting process is thus at least sufficient to allow for complete bio-stabilization. In addition, in the process of this invention, steps are taken to minimize losses of nutrients due to volatilization and leaching. It is also necessary to control the water content of the incoming waste material, to ensure that the composted material has the desired water content, and is obtained as a screenable dry particulate material.
In the second step of the process of this invention, the fully bio-stabilized and nutrient rich compost is passed through a relatively coarse screen, and separated into two fractions. The particles greater than 1 cm are removed and further processed, and the smaller particles are used in the next step.
In the third step of this invention, the material from step two is screened a second time, so as to separate it into specific particle size components. The compost is screened for particles of 1 mm or less, to provide a material in which preferably at least about 95% of the fine particles are less than 150 microns in size. This is referred to as the xe2x80x9cfinexe2x80x9d component of the finished compost. The larger particles, above 200 microns, are rejected, and are used for other purposes.
In the fourth step of the process of this invention, the screened fine material obtained in the third step is subjected to a pelleting process in a pelleting mill, or similar equipment, to provide a pelleted pure organic fertilizer product. In the pelleting mill, the organic matter in the compost fine material binds the fine particles together into a pure organic fertilizer pellet during compression in the pelleting mill. Depending to some extent on the size and shape of the pellets being produced, typical pelleting pressures are in the range of from 2,000 psi to 6,000 psi. The use of pressures beyond 6,000 psi do not provide any benefits, as optimal bonding appears to be obtained with a pressure between 2,000 and 6,000 psi.
The thus obtained pure organic fertilizer pellets are then packaged by conventional methods for use. The fertilizer compost pellets can be sold into the commercial fertilizer market, particularly for the use of practitioners of organic crop production.